Door and housing therefor



Oct. l., 1957 F. wElsE 2,807,835

' DOOR AND HOUSING THEREFOR Filed June 8, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l HH S f l l, 1Q j' I?) l v IN V EN TOR.

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lll/ll V H. l W H ms M Nm mw z DV wm.. "WIJ QM, K m n N A. i R F W United States Patent O 2,807,835 y DOOR AND HOUSING THEREFOR Frank Weise, Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to The Cornell Research Foundation, Inc., Ithaca, N. Y., a corporation of New York VApplication June s, 1954, serial N0. 435,233

4 claims. (Cl. zii- 15) This inventionrelates to doors and more particularly to swinging doors of the receding or disappearing type.

It is well known that there are many instances where it is advantageous to have a door of a cabinet left open but in the open position the door would be an obstruction.

Further, swinging doors of the disappearing type have advantages over conventional swinging doors andk it has long been desired to have a package or cartridge unit which contains doors of the disappearing type whichmay be used to replace vthe conventional swinging doors of a cabinet. y

It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide a swinging door for base cabinets as part of a housing cartridge., .The housing cartridge serves a dual function in that it will support the cabinet counter top and will contain and house the doors themselves when the cabinet is open.

A further object of my invention is to provide a carrier and housing unit which is adapted for mounting within open front base'cabinets asa vertical partition therein as well as a transverse support for the upper work-surface wall of the cabinet intermediate the vertical supporting end walls thereof.

A further object of this invention is to provide swinging doors of the disappearing type with an improved and more efficient sliding means movable on grooved metal or wooden guides whereby the doors, when in closed position, may be swung outwardly and slid inwardly into the cartridge in an out of the way position thus disclosing the contents of the cabinet.

Further, it is an object of this invention to provide swinging doors of the disappearing type with an improved stop means and housing means so that the doors, in order to close and conceal the contents of a cabinet, are pulled outwardly from a housing cartridge by the operator until they are stopped at the front edge of the cartridge. The doors are then swung to close olf the base cabinet opening.

It is an additional object of this invention to provide swinging doors of the disappearing type with an improved and more eicient carrying plate or slide on which the doors are suspended and from which the doors swing, and further to provide the plate with antifriction means allowing for more ease of operation for sliding the doors into and out of the housing cartridge.

Another object of this invention is to provide swinging doors of the disappearing type in which the door is hinged to a carrying plate with means vcooperating with a flange on the door to support the door during opening and closing thereof in order to prevent tilting of the carrying plate.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be seen in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l is an isometric view of the housing cartridge unit showing the doors in open receded position and the unit attached to the bottom and back of a conventional base cabinet;

Fig. 2 is a plan View partly in cross-section taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 4 and broken, transversely for conven- 2 ience of illustration showing a door in closed position'and with the carrying plate in the outer or extended position; Fig. 3 is a vertical section along line 3--3 of Fig. 1, broken transversely for convenience of illustration and showing' a door inV open receded position; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical section similar to Fig. 3, taken along My invention primarily involves providing a packaged housing cartridge, generally designated 18, containing doors 2l) swingably mounted for sliding movementtherein. There is shown, for the purpose of illustration only, two doors 20 and it is to be understood that a single door may be contained in the housing cartridge 18.

Further, it is to be understood that the cartridge housinglS maybe part of the original base cabinet assembly 1t). For brevity, my invention shall herein be disclosed as a packaged or prefabricated cartridge or door package unit housing y18 adapted to be inserted and placed into a cabinet 10 which has already been assembled, bearing in mind that small modifications amounting to mechanical skill `would only be necessary if the same cartridge housing 13 were assembled at the factory with the base cabinet.

Attention is directed to Fig. 2 wherein a single swinging door 20 and the slidable carrying means 22 therefor is shown. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the door 20 is shown in closed position and is pivotally secured to a vertically disposed plate 24 by means of hinges 26. Each door 20 is fabricated of sheet material and it will be noted that the door assembly is reenforced at 28 by the return bend of the outer sheet material to provide a reenforced base for carrying the hinges 26.

The vertical plate 24 has disposed adjacent each of its upper and lower edges a plurality of roller antifriction means 30 which provide for movement of the vertical plate 24 inwardly and outwardly in relation to the housing cartridge 1S. There is provided within the housing cartridge 18, adjacent its upper and lower portions and eX- tending longitudinally therein a plurality of parallel disposed guide or trackways 32 in which the rollers 30 operate. lt is readily understood that with the structure noted above that upon pivoting the door 2@ outwardly on the hinges 26 so that the door will be disposed in longitudinal alignment with the vertical plate Z4 that the operator may at this time urge the door into the housing cartridge 18 by reason of the sliding ability of the plate 24 carried by the rollers 3b in the guide or trackways 32.

it should be further noted that the reverse bend reenforcing portion 28 of the door extends beyond the axis of the hinges 26 and provides stop means 34 so that the door 30 will come into longitudinal alignment with the plate 24 when the door is opened. Further, the extension provides a smooth outer surface between the doors 20 when they are closed.

The lower portion of the door Z!) is provided with a ange 36 formed by a reverse bend of the sheet material and functions as a guideway which will be explained later. It is to be noted that the bottom portion 12 of the base cabinet 1? has disposed in the recess 33 thereof adjacent the open end of the housing'cartridge 18 and in longitudinal alignment with the vertical plate 24 a roller means 40 rotatably mounted on the bottom 12 by a pin 42.

Attention is directed to Fig. 3 in which the ange 36 on the door 20 provides a guide or trackway which cooperates with the roller means 40 to provide support for Patented Oct. 1

the door when the plate 24 and roller assemblies 30, are being urged to an inward position in the housing 18. Since the roller 40 carries the door 20 throughout its complete inward and outward `movement within the housing 18 there is little possibility or opportunity for the vertical plate 24 to tip and become derailed from the guides 30. Further, much ease is provided by affording a rolling contact to the door when it is being urged into and out of its disappearing position within the housing cartridge.

Attention isdirected to Fig. 4 wherein it will be noted thattthe vertical plate 24 `has its upper and lower outer edge portion cut diagonally, as shown at 44 which diagonal cut provides an abutting means to stop `the vertical plate assembly 24 on its outer movement by reason of abutting contact with the longitudinally aligned rollers 40.`

The housing cartridge 18 is provided with top 46, bottom 48 andvertically disposed parallel extending slides 50 having outwardly extending flanges 52 which provide for the securing of the housing 18 to the bottom 12 and back 16 of the base cabinet 10 by means of screws 54 or the like. The top `46 of thehousing 18 is provided with outer extending anges 56 in order to secure a molding 58, or the like, andthe top `of the base cabinet to the housing so that the housing cartridge has the additional function of supporting the top of the cabinet.

It isreadily seen that I have provided a structure which will convert a base lcabinet having conventional swinging doors into a cabinet having swinging doors which may be easily and efficiently placed in an out of the way disappearing position upon swinging the door into longitudinalalignment with an opening in the housing and then urging the door and carrying `plate assembly inwardly.

Having thus described my invention in detail with respect to a particular modification thereof as described herein, it is to be understood that the concept of this invention is not limited `to those details, but is to be determined by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:`

1. As an article of manufacture, a door package unit adapted to be associated with and become a partition in a cabinet having a door opening, said unit comprising a housing in the form of a rectangular box like framework having top and bottom walls and an open front, a door mounted for sliding movement into and out of said housing and for horizontal pivotal movement to close an adjacent door opening, upper and lower trackways on the top and bottom walls of the housing, a door supporting panel having upper, lower, forward and rear edges, slidably mounted in said housing, roller means laterally offset `from said panel adjacent the forward and rear edges at the upper and lower edges of said panel and engaging said trackways, means pivoting the door to the forward edge of the panel, a second roller means in the bottom wall of the housing adjacent the front opening and offset trans versely from the trackways, said second roller means being engaged by the door when in position forsliding into the housing and supporting said door during such Isliding movement, and a flange on the lower edgeof said door engaging the second roller means.

2. The structure as delined in claim l including stop means limiting the forward movement of said panel.

3. The structure as defined in claim 2 wherein the stop means comprises a bevelled portion at the lower and forward edges of the panel engageable with the second roller means.

4. The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the door is swingable into alignment with the panel and wherein said flange constitutes a stop limiting the swinging movement to such position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 478,594 Hafgar July 12, 1892 974,542 Vanderveld Nov. `1, 1910 1,386,738 Sonnenberg Aug. 9, 1921 2,347,705 Mosler et al May 2, 1944 

